-
-
The broken promise of America: betrayal by America's rich
Who's paying the price for America's growing income gap? In the United States it is the richest among us who are most assuredly and solely benefiting, while the U.S. economy consistently fails over 30-million hard-working Americans primarily with substandard wages.
The U.S. government rigs the tax codes and contorts the laws specifically to over-burden the working classes while making the wealthiest in the United States more and more wealthy. The top one percent garners about 80% of all income gains. It is an extremely "lop-sided" system designed by the rich of this nation to benefit primarily the wealthiest top one-percent of our nation--particularly the top one-tenth of those wealthiest "one-percenters."
The working classes are simply and efficiently over-taxed to sure economic death working as much as 6 months out the year to pay "their" taxes, while the rich pay (as a percentage) MUCH less than their fair share. Is it fair that the wage earners are held to report literally ALL their income while the rich are exempted? Is it fair that American "corporations" (which the rich control with iron-clad fists) are shipping jobs, assets and intellectual property off-shore just as fast as they can?
The insolence and audacity of the rich to frame their own ideas exclusively in terms of purely "raw commercial value," serves as the primary excuse avoiding very real and generations-neglected social obligations and responsibilities to this nation--namely "to make society a more valuable place, to create involved participants...to form a more perfect union, to promote justice, to provide the common defense, to provide domestic tranquility, to provide for the COMMON wealth (the general welfare)--those are the reasons we created this country, and those should be the focus of our policies...but if our policies are merely pecuniary...then we're going to go down the wrong path." [quoting David K. Johnston, New York Times]
A devastating cast-like system is materializing in the United States at the behest of the rich who would have us remain ignorant or intentionally misled and deluded from the startling reality that is befalling hard-working Americans today... Who's paying the price for America's growing income gap? In the United States it is the richest among us who are most assur... more -
Click to Find Income Inequality of Rich & Poor in Your State
Click your state for recent statistics on the gap between its rich and poor residents.
Click to find and contact your congressional representative to tell them what you think about it.
(Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)
Much very grateful thanks to PBS NOW and correspondent David B. and everyone who helped produce "Taxing the Poor" (what a laudable and profound service to this country!) Click your state for recent statistics on the gap between its rich and poor residents. ... more -
Scan detects obsessive-compulsive disorder
"Scientists say they have pinpointed differences in the way the brains of people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) work.
OCD provokes recurrent irrational thoughts such as fears about contamination or accidents, and compulsion to follow fixed rituals.
Scans revealed less activity in a particular region of the brains of both OCD patients and their close relatives.
It is estimated that between 2% and 3% of the population will suffer some kind of OCD at some point in their lives.
To try to provoke an "OCD" response, they were asked to choose between pictures on two screens side by side, one of which had been randomly selected as the "target".
The pictures would alternate between left and right, and the volunteer was given occasional feedback as to whether the right target was being chosen.
The test was designed to stimulate "behavioural flexibility", one of the known problems in people with OCD.
In volunteers without OCD, or a family history of the condition, the test caused activity in a part of the brain called the orbitofrontal cortex.
However, in both the people with diagnosed OCD, and their relatives, the amount of activity was much lower.
"What it could do is help test the effectiveness of interventions for OCD, and the more we learn about which parts of the brain are being activated, the more chance we have of understanding the condition better." "Scientists say they have pinpointed differences in the way the brains of people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) work. ... more -
Obsessive disorder risk linked to brain region
Scientists have located an area in the brain that fails to "kick-in" for people with obsessive compulsive disorder and those at risk of developing the condition.
The discovery could allow researchers to diagnose the debilitating disorder much earlier and better track how drug treatments are working, they reported in the journal Science.
"The main finding is that in people with obsessive compulsive disorder and their unaffected relatives, part of their orbitofrontal cortex didn't kick in on line as it should have," said Samuel Chamberlain, a neuroscientist at the University of Cambridge, who led the study.
"This is the first study to identify underactive brains in people at risk of OCD."
OCD is a psychiatric anxiety disorder that tends to run in families and is marked by recurrent and persistent thoughts and impulses, such as uncontrollable and repeated hand washing. It affects about 2 to 3 percent of people worldwide at some point in life.
(Excerpts / Michael Kahn, Reuters) Scientists have located an area in the brain that fails to "kick-in" for people with obsessive compulsive disorder and those... more -
Could an Acid Trip Cure Your OCD?
"One of the study participants spent more than two decades in therapy in a futile attempt to heal the deep wounds inflicted by a violent and emotionally abusive stepfather. She ran away from home, was raped twice by men who picked her up hitchhiking, and ricocheted from one abusive relationship to another.
The patient, a 51-year-old woman from South Carolina, coped by deadening herself emotionally. “I knew I was messed up, but I sealed up all those feelings because they were so overwhelming,” she recalls. “They were like the monster that is locked behind a three-foot-thick steel door.”
Under the influence of MDMA, she was able to let go of the blockage that had stunted her emotionally. “The drug opened the door and removed that fear of feeling,” she says. “I never cried about those experiences before, but now I can and I welcome it. I no longer feel like I’m holding back the Red Sea.” "One of the study participants spent more than two decades in therapy in a futile attempt to heal the deep wounds inflicted by a ... more -
WTF!? Internet addiction nominated for entry in the manual of mental disorders?
First, we all had mild Asperger's. Now, Internet addiction disorder? Give a geek a break. In the March issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, Jerald Block proposed that Web abuse be added to his field's bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Block cites research from South Korea, where, he says, the affliction is considered a serious public health problem, and the government estimates that 168,000 children may require psychotropic medications. In China, the Beijing Military Region Central Hospital puts the number of teenage pathological computer users at 10 million.
Like other addicts, users reportedly experience cravings (for better software, faster machines), withdrawal (logging off may cause irritability), a loss of sense of time (wee-hour fixes), and negative social repercussions (it's so much easier to date an avatar). Sound familiar? Your friend the World Wide Web may be a monkey on your back. Or not. Just ask yourself this: If Google were a drug, would I smoke it? First, we all had mild Asperger's. Now, Internet addiction disorder? Give a geek a break. In the March issue of the American Jour... more -
Sleep-Paralysis and Sleep-Paralysis-Demons,what is it?
Here something that is pretty Haunting,and Crazy....The Reason why I wanted to share this is because,I've experienced this a few time's and one day I was at my friends house posted up and watching the discovery channel and they had a segment on this Acurrance and it me think...hhhmmmm.so I looked at my friend and asked her if she'd experience Sleep-Paralysis...She said once or twice...Now if you had an experience anything let me know...Respond.It's Very intresting stuff... Here something that is pretty Haunting,and Crazy....The Reason why I wanted to share this is because,I've experienced this a few ... more
-
How Shyness Became a Mental Illness
Oh, you didn't know? Normal human behaviors are now serious psychiatric "disorders" for which pharmaceutical companies are falling over each other trying to make pills to combat these terrible afflictions. Oh, you didn't know? Normal human behaviors are now serious psychiatric "disorders" for which pharmaceutical companies ... more
-
related topics
Disorders
Contributors (14)
Disorders
